Samsung DVD-HD841 HDTV-Compatible Upconverter DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: Great Player but No HDMI
Review: I find this to be an excellent DVD player. I almost waited for the hd-941 for HDMI and the DCDi, but I decided it would be redundant as DCDi is built into my DLP. Also the audio features of HDMI would be useless with the 6 channel DVD audio outputs and the DVI offers equal video.
I'm not sure what artifacts Spencer is talking about in Finding Nemo; But Nemo looks incredible on this machine. There must be something wrong with his DVI input or his color settings. Nemo is over the top in detail and clarity. And animation like Shrek is out of this world.
The upconversion to HDTV 1081i makes movies like Return of the King better then the theatre, you have to see this player to believe it. I recommend going to your local video store to see it for yourself. The Picture is simply mesmerizing and the six channel audio almost makes the purchase worth wild in it self. It adds a whole new dimension the true feel of home theatre sound.
All in all a great player with easy set-up and fabulous options for the price. The only fault is no HDMI and no DCDi but that will be out in the HD-941 if you need it.

Rating:
Summary: Dark scenes are featureless on DVI; text blurry in all modes
Review: When connected to my HDTV via the DVI cable (on any resolution, including my TV's native 720p), this unit cannot show distinctions in dark colors. Prime example: In Finding Nemo, when Nemo is first dumped into the aquarium and hides among the plants, the hd841 shows the plants as one featureless, monochromatic, dark-gray mass (with 3 or 4 bright green spots where the light hits them). In contrast, my 4-year-old non-progressive GoVideo DVD player (connected over a plain-old video RCA cable) shows the plants as dark green with darker and ligher streaks, stripes, and other details, with subtle highlights and shadows in the dark parts of the scene.

The same problem is apparent on the THX "optimizer" tests that come on several Disney/Pixar DVDs. The "brightness" test, which is supposed to show a THX logo and drop shadow on a blackish background (surrounded by 8 or 9 boxes in various shades of gray) shows NO detail other than 3 or 4 of the gray boxes. The logo and drop shadow are both completely invisible against the background, as are most of the gray boxes. No amount of adjusting the TV (brightness, contrast, etc.) or the player (note that no black-level adjustment is even available in DVI) had any effect--the detail simply was not there.

In addition, I have concerns with the picture quality in general. While bright scenes looked generally fine, text (such as the "warning" screen at the beginning of DVDs) looks like at came from an old typewriter with a worn-out ribbon. Truly blurry and annoying. Again, a night-and-day difference compared to my old DVD player, and the problem exists regardless of output mode (DVI, component, s-video).

By the way, the black/gray problem was largely solved by using the player's component outputs, but then what's the point of paying extra money for the DVI? The black crush really makes it unacceptable. Unless someone can tell me a fix for this problem, I'll be returning the player for a "regular" DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio unit like the Pioneer 563a or 578a and saving fifty or sixty bucks.